


The Fourth Bandmate

by TheGladerAndTheGlue



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: All the boys deserve better, Angst, Bobby deserves better, Bobby | Trevor Wilson-centric, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Sunset Curve, the boys die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29009268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGladerAndTheGlue/pseuds/TheGladerAndTheGlue
Summary: The ambulance is cold. So is the stretcher. So cold it’s as if it’s trying to give him a sneak peek of death when his blood will run cold.OrSunset Curve dies, and Bobby has to identify the bodies.
Relationships: Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Rose
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	The Fourth Bandmate

The ambulance is cold. So cold he expects to see his breath above him like mini clouds. Clouds that would feel so out of place in this gruesome scene. But his body is hot, so is Reggie’s. His hand grasps Reggie’s shoulder, shaking him weakly. The boy stopped breathing a few seconds ago. A red trail from a single drop of blood runs from the corner of his mouth down his cheek, head lolled to the side. Empty eyes staring back at Luke. The hope left them before the life did.

The ambulance is cold. So is the stretcher. So cold it’s as if it’s trying to give him a sneak peek of death when his blood will run cold.

A woman—Doctor? Nurse? It doesn’t matter— stands next to Reggie, pressing down on his chest, CPR.

”Luke?” A weak voices comes from his other side. But Reggie has the kind of eyes that you never want to stop looking into, even without the spark behind them. Maybe if he doesn’t stop looking he can pretend his best friend is still alive. If he looks away, then looks back, it’ll be too real, it’ll be like seeing a body for the first time in a morgue. Watching his friend die, that doesn’t seem real. No one should have to see that, so it can’t possibly be real. Right?

”Luke!” Alex’s voice is more urgent this time and Luke chooses the still living over the already lost.

_The already lost._

None of the was supposed to happen.

They we’re gonna be legends.

_How could he have lost one of them?_

Luke turns to see Alex facing him, coughing slightly. He reaches out a hand and Luke reaches out his own to meet Alex in the middle.

Alex’s hand drops before they can touch.

”Alex?” Then more urgently, like Alex has done with his name. “Alex! Not you!”

Luke coughs this time, his mouth filling with the coppery taste that you never want to taste in an ambulance.

”Not you too.” 

No one moves to perform CPR on Alex, or to give him oxygen, or to inject him with some sort of life saving vaccine.

No one moves to close his eyes. They look just like Reggie’s.

 _Like mine will be_ _soon_ he realizes.

Luke turns to face Reggie again. The woman, not performing CPR anymore, has tilted his head up to face the roof of the ambulance. When Luke turns back, Alex’s head has been moved as well. Both of their eyes are closed now.

It’s strange, but having their eyes on him was a comfort. There are no comforts now.

The doctors try, but it makes him feel worse. Doctors only comfort their patients in this way when there’s nothing left they can do to save them. When they know they’re gonna die.

Their voices are muffled, Luke not bothering to listen, the ambulance siren is muffled as well. 

His body feels empty and crushed but his mind is full of just two names circling around and around. _Alex. Reggie. Alex. Reggie._

_Bobby._

A third name now.

Is it terrible to wish Bobby could be here with him? 

Luke let’s out on last wet, strangled cough, blood starting to spill over the edges of his lips like Reggie’s.

”What’s happening?” The voice of a scared little boy.

Hands smooth down his hair and wipe the non stop tears from his cheeks. He reaches out to his sides for Alex and Reggie’s hands, not wanting to look at their bodies again. He can’t simply pretend they’re lying there asleep when their chests aren’t rising and falling with life.

Someone lifts his friends hands so he can take them in his own. He squeezes them tightly.

And then two pairs of clasped hands fall.

-

The morgue is cold. The bodies are colder.

Rose’s hand is warm.

Bobby’s entire body feels numb as he shakes, the hand Rose is holding is slightly steadier. Slightly.

”Take your time son.”

The doctor has been patient with him, kind, after all who would be rude to a teenager whose lost his three best friends?

_All of them._

He’s slow to pull the sheet off of the body closest to him, Roses hand still in his own. She was the one who drove him to the hospital when the police called.

She had been so excited to watch them perform.

Bobby removes the sheet from the bodies face and immediately drops Rose’s hand to recover it, taking several steps back.

It’s Luke.

Its _real_.

”Bobby?” Rose whispers, reaching out to his shoulder. He pulls away before she can touch him and backs out of the morgue into the empty and poorly lit hallway.

”Just give us a minute.” Rose tells the doctor, receiving a sad nod, and joins Bobby in the hallway. He’s sitting on the floor, back to the wall, curled in on himself and trying to hide his tears from her.

It’s not like she hasn’t seen a whole lot of them already tonight.

This happens three more times as he lifts the sheet off of Alex, then Reggie, then Luke again just to make sure his mind wasn’t playing cruel tricks on him the first time.

”Bobby we need to call their parents.” Rose says gently, her own tears still leaving track marks on her face, as she kneels before Bobby sitting in one of the uncomfortable chairs outside of the morgue, elbows on his knees and head in his hands.

All she gets in response is a small head shake.

”Bobby please. They need to know, and not from the news.”

His voice is small and muffled when he says, “They’re not gonna care.”

”What are you talking about? It’s their _parents_.”

”Yea well their parents don’t give a shit about them alright!” He yells this time, misdirected anger meant for his friends parents.

Bobby's head drops back into his hands. “I’m sorry. But I’m right, they haven’t cared about their kids in a long time. The three of them practically lived in my garage. I was their family alright? Me.”

Despite the understanding look on Roses face she still looks like she’s urging him to make the calls.

Lukes mother picks up after one ring.

”Hello, Mrs. Patterson? Yea it’s Bobby.”

Rose stands next to him, a hand in his, listening to his side of the conversation as his voice grows slowly shakier. Watching as he turns to look through the morgue window only to immediately turn away.

”There was an accident and Luke...” he trails off. He hasn’t been able to say it out loud before, _they’re dead, they’re gone, they’re no longer with me_.

”I’m sorry, there was... I’m so sorry.” he looks to Rose for help and she takes the phone from him, speaking calmly.

”Mrs. Patterson? My name is Rose, I’m a... a friend of your son.”

Bobby doesn’t stay for the rest of the conversation, no doubt had he stayed close he would have been able to hear Luke’s parents sobbing and demanding answers, demanding to know what the hell had happened.

Rose comes to find him after. “If you give me Alex and Reggie’s parents numbers I can call them too, ok?” And he nods.

-

News reporters And journalists are waiting outside the hospital when Bobby and Rose finally leave, who knows how they found out.

They ambush the grieving teenager. _H_ _ow did this happen? Why did you survive? What will be the future of Sunset Curve._

Rose tries to shield him from the flashing lights of the cameras, this is nowhere near the type of publicity he had hoped to receive tonight.

This is the first time Bobby has ever felt like running away.

Sure he’s though about it before, when Luke came bicycling into the studio, not wanting to talk and he realized just how much his friend was hurting. When Alex took the cross off of his necklace and his parents stopped looking him in the eye. All the times Reggie came to practice trying to hide bruises and flinching when someone raises their voice even the slightest.

He had thought of just wrapping his brothers up in a giant protective blanket and dragging them away to a place no one could hurt them.

But that was always for them, and he would always imagine them together. Never once did something happen in his life that made him genuinely want to disappear.

Until now.

Some people are strong enough to suffer in the spotlight. But Bobby needs to become invisible.

And Rose will keep shielding him.

-

No, seeing them again isn’t any easier than it was all those years ago in the morgue. But things are different now, Rose isn’t here to help him through it, he lost her too.

But his boys? They’re so different from the last time he saw them but also exactly the same. Playing their hearts out and touching peoples souls like they’d always done. Playing at the goddamn Orpheum!

They just look so...

So _alive._


End file.
